“The volunteers, led by Cecil-Smith and Jim Higgins, the commissar for the trip home, marched onto the stage to thunderous applause.” 

Really? It made sense to me that Edward Cecil-Smith would be leading. He was the battalion commander. But Jim Higgins?

The above quote is from a recent tweet by Tyler Wentzell about the return of the Mac-Paps from the Spanish Civil War. Tyler was marking 80 years since an event to raise money for the rehabilitation needs of the vets, which was held on February 6, 1939, at Toronto’s Massey Hall.

I was baffled. I hadn’t recalled Jim Higgins saying anything about “leading” in his memoir. Tyler had read the manuscript, so I scurried to have a look. Here’s what Jim Higgins did say,

“The next morning was the Massey Hall rally. There was a rehearsal that lasted an hour, and I then went to get a haircut and something to eat before contacting other vets to ensure they had transportation. An hour before the public arrived, I helped direct the vets to their place on the stage.”

“The curtain went up at Massey Hall, and the applause turned into a standing ovation, with  a roar that deafened the ears.”

Ahhhh. OK, I can see how it could be deduced that Jim Higgins would be beside Cecil-Smith on that stage if commissars had more status than I had realized. I knew he was beside Cecil-Smith when the Mac-Paps arrived to a 10,000 plus welcome at Toronto’s Union Station three days before, because there’s a photo that captures the moment.

I tweeted a response, asking if there was a photo of the stage. (I wanted proof.) Tyler hadn’t seen one but said there was lots of media coverage so there could be. I checked the Toronto Star archives since I knew the Star had provided extensive coverage of the Mac-Paps’ return, but the only reference to Higgins I could find was a quoted comment he made about there not being enough weapons for the soldiers in Spain.

As a military historian, steeped in the details of the Spanish Civil War, especially when it comes to the Canadians, Tyler Wentzell had obviously made what, for him, was a logical assumption about who would be leading the vets onto the stage. Perhaps a commissar to a commander did have more status than I had thought.

I’m writing about this because it illustrates one of several issues I’ve faced as Jim Higgins’ editor. He was the last person to self-aggrandize or blow his own horn. In fact, he was modest to a fault and in some instances it has taken many readings to fully realize the extent of the role he plays throughout his memoir.

Only once was it clear; when he wrote about a dramatic and painful stand he took against a tyrannical teacher at his boarding school in Manchester, England.  The teacher was fired as a result, and Higgins let go of his modesty long enough to say, “I became a hero to the boys.”

Otherwise, he downplays everything. He was “not a hero” when he rescued people who were drowning, though others thought so. In the Spanish Civil War, he was a machine-gunner but it took me awhile to realize he was more than that. In fact, it was only through a comment by British author Jason Webster, after he read the manuscript, that Higgins was in “secret ops”, that I had any clue.

In those instances I’ve made slight edits to bring out his role. And while Higgins hints at some kind of special role, I’m taking the advice of my fact-checkers not to speculate about the “007 stuff”, as one put it, though I do provide the reader with the tantalizing bits so they can speculate for themselves.

He’d always been that way. When I was in Grade 9, we were asked to complete a questionnaire which included our father’s occupation. That night, over the dinner table, I told him I’d put down “machinist”.

He responded, “I’m not a machinist. I’m a machine operator. A machinist has far more education and training than I have.” It was important for him to set me straight, when he could just as easily have let it go.

He may have been a lowly machine operator but when a machine broke down, he was the one called to fix it. I knew that. I also knew management wanted to promote him, but he refused the promotion because it would have meant leaving his union mates.

My sister Maggie recently told me, “All I knew was that he was our father, and that he worked in a factory.” All I can say, in light of what I now know, is that his story is far bigger than that.

While it is possible he was beside Cecil-Smith with the Mac-Paps on that stage, I’m still not certain because surely Cecil-Smith would have been with his officers, including Captain Lionel Edwards.

That is, unless commissars were afforded that same respect as officers. Certainly, it was up to the commissar to have done exactly what Higgins does describe; in lay terms a commissar is like an executive assistant to an officer (this time the commander, so probably a prestigious appointment) and is responsible for the well-being of the soldiers.

As Jim Higgins’ editor, I am not about making him into more than he was, but I do want to honour and acknowledge who he actually was. Deciphering this humble, self-effacing man for the reader has been one of my biggest challenges.

That’s because I want readers unfamiliar with war scenarios and labour organizing, to “get it” the first time they read the book; not the tenth, or even twentieth, that it’s taken me.

***

NOW PUBLISHED: Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War (2020) is available worldwide from Independent Bookstores, Chapters-Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Kindle version on Amazon. Orders of three or more: Friesen Press

I encourage you to obtain it from your local Indie bookseller or library. And if you can leave a review or “star” it somewhere, like Amazon or Goodreads, that would be much appreciated!

Fighting for Democracy by Jim Higgins is the latest book about the Mac-Paps, Canadians in the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, which was part of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Other books about Canadians in the Spanish Civil War include Not For King or Country by Tyler Wentzell , Mac-Pap by Ronald Liversedge with David Yorke and Renegades by Michael Petrou.